BALLAST FOR HIGH PRESSURE DISCHARGE LAMP

摘要

Provided is a high-voltage discharge lamp lighting apparatus having a smaller size and a simple structure for lighting a high-voltage discharge lamp that uses a starting light source. The high-voltage discharge lamp lighting apparatus has a lamp lighting circuit for supplying an AC power to the high-voltage discharge lamp. The high-voltage discharge lamp includes a light emitting tube and the starting light source located in the vicinity of the light emitting tube for helping the light emitting tube to start. The starting light source has a pair of electrodes, which are capacitively coupled to each other. The lamp lighting circuit includes a bridge unit that performs the inverting operation of a lamp current, a current limiting unit that limits the lamp current, and an igniter unit that generates a start voltage. At the start, the lamp lighting circuit applies, to the starting light source, a voltage including a higher frequency component than a lighting frequency used during a stationary lighting of the light emitting tube.